Meringue Made of Drained Chickpea Water – You Wish I Was Kidding (Crappy)

Sounds so absurd that you must believe me, because who would make this up.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/06/10/aquafaba_baking_with_chickpea_liquid_for_vegan_meringues.html

The inventor of this dish: “Oh, what to do with this smelly water from my beans…I’ll put it in a mixer and see.”

Word has gotten around the internet that if you whip the liquid from a can of chickpeas the way you whip egg whites, it’ll turn into meringue.  I had some garbanzo liquid to spare, so I decided I would give it a try.

The recipe I followed called for 3/4 cup of bean juice (a.k.a. “aquafaba” – who named it that) and 1 heaping cup of granulated sugar.  I put the beany water in a bowl and started whipping with my hand mixer.  Never mind that all the tutorials I found called for a stand mixer.

Minute 1: well, it is certainly foaming up the way egg whites do.

Minute 4: it is really starting to smell like chickpea juice.  Not sure I should be turning this into dessert, but whatever.  I’ll keep going.

Minute 7: I don’t think this hand mixer was meant to run on high for this long.  It’s starting to smell like my old hair dryer did before it died.

Minute 10: we’re at medium peaks, and I’m expecting the mixer to give out any minute.

Minute 12: still medium peaks.

Minute 14: still medium peaks.

Minute 15: I give up.  Let’s add the sugar and call it a day.

Here are my medium bean peaks with sugar dumped in.  And some decorative cans of beans.

Here is my concoction after trying to incorporate the sugar.

Goodbye, medium peaks.

I now have foamy bean sugar soup.

It went down the drain…I hope my drain can handle it.

Verdict: do not try this unless you have a stand mixer.  And unless you’re vegan and can’t eat egg whites, maybe just don’t try it at all.